AI Strategy: Transformation | Innovation | Disruption

AI Strategy: Transformation | Innovation | Disruption

AIQRATE Team

Sameer Dhanrajani

Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder

Sameer is a globally recognized AI advisor, business builder , evangelist and thought leader known for his deep knowledge, strategic consulting approaches in AI space.  Sameer has consulted with several Fortune 500 global enterprises, Indian corporations , GCCs,startups , VC/PE firms, Academic Institutions  in driving AI led strategic transformation and innovation strategies. He has a rich and proven experience of building and scaling AI businesses and practices, securing large AI engagements & deals and creating significant client impact.

Sameer is a renowned author , columnist , blogger and four times TEDx speaker. He is an author of bestselling book – AI and Analytics : accelerating business decisions published by Wiley and series editor for Wiley innovation black book 2019 & 2020 editions ; writes regularly for Forbes , YourStory , Telangana Today , Business world and is a prolific blogger with trendsetting, topical coverage on AI strategy & consulting spectrum. Recently , Sameer was highlighted in the top 100 Digital Influencers in India at #8 by YourStory and have been recognized amongst the Top influential AI leaders by Forbes Council , NASSCOM , TDWI , Predictive Analytics World & SSON and was awarded by NASSCOM as “India’s youngest country head in global capability centers(GCC) “ .

Known for his passion for Artificial Intelligence , Sameer has a huge following on social media and is a well-recognized keynote expert, moderator and speaker at several global industry forums and conferences. Sameer has been frequently quoted across business media and news publications and is recipient of multiple awards and recognitions. Sameer is also associated as AI steering committee member at NASSCOM & CII and as AI Advisor with state governments and is instrumental in leading the effort for positioning India as a premier destination in AI. He is a well-known contributor in the academia space. He is a trusted advisor with leading academic institutions, active with startups and advices them on AI led interventions. 

A fast tracker professional with 23 + years of different genres of industry experience, Sameer has donned various leadership roles in consulting , GCCs , bell weather technology organizations and boutique firms to help deliver transformative and innovative AI advisory offerings and  consulting offerings to several CXOs and senior leaders.

Previously, Sameer was Chief Strategy Officer at Fractal Analytics and was responsible for curating strategic planning roadmaps , driving strategic investments ,M&A ,incubating new AI capabilities and geographies, marketing & branding and led high-priority growth initiatives to enable Fractal clients on AI-led transformation of their businesses . In his previous assignment , Sameer was Global Business Leader at Cognizant analytics and data sciences business unit at Cognizant Technology Solutions. Under his leadership , Cognizant Analytics became a leading market player in the analytics market space with 3400 analytics professionals serving 180 global clients and executed 3000 plus consulting projects and engagements . As an accomplished professional, Sameer provided the pivotal strategic direction and execution led insights to galvanize Cognizant Analytics run better & run different. Prior to Cognizant, Sameer was the Country Head at Fidelity National Financial and pioneered India’s first Global Capability Center(GCC) to be based on non-linear growth model with platform-based value propositions and developed Fidelity India into a hub of customer delight, delivery innovation, and operational dexterity. Before Fidelity, he worked as Vice President ,Analytics at Genpact.

Sameer is an MBA from IIM – Bangalore and  pursued Strategic Management program from London Business School & Digital Innovation & Design program from MIT.

NK (Nandakumar Ramaiah)

Chief Technology Officer & Co-founder

NK has 26+ years of solid consulting and technology experience in Artificial Intelligence, Data Engineering and Product Management.

As SVP for Products at SmarTek21, NK spearheaded Strategy, Product Engineering and Customer Engagement functions of SmartBotHub, a Machine Learning based Conversational AI platform that integrated with NLP and intelligent cognitive engines to derive insights.

As the Senior leader at Accenture, NK built and managed data engineering platforms and cloud strategies for multiple clients across Banking, Financial Services, Telecom and Technology domains. NK led and managed large teams of consulting, solutioning, AI, cloud, data engineering and life-cycle services experts for global clients and was instrumental in setting up data engineering CoEs for bringing AI@scale for the global clients. He also worked with Indian School of Business (ISB) to establish ISB-Accenture Management Development Academy for leadership development.

As business head for Insurance and Financial Services business units at TechMahindra, NK led the complete transformation life cycle for setting up new-age-technology based Collections and Customer Services solution for large Financial Service provider in USA and Europe. Enabled the setup of Operations Units in multiple countries with single-point process control system. Championed and mentored leaders on the Full Life Cycle Leadership, a new dimension of AI and Visualization based leadership implemented across the organization. This initiative paved way for real-time decision making based on large data sets summarized from disparate systems across Business Development and Project Execution areas.